Competitors have all the right moves

A group of first-time martial art competitors have walked away from a national championship with at least one medal each and an invitation to spar on the international stage.

The New Plymouth Taekwondo and Hapkido Club now has nine medals – majority gold – to show from the recent Oceania Hapkido Championships in Wellington.

But the club, which is non-profit and trains in a small Bell Block hall, may have more than that to show off soon.

Maddison Gibbs, 16, Royden Whitham, 11, Nihmaren Ioane, 14, Kayleb Ruffles, 14, Manny Sadler and Jesse Puata competed at the two-day event and coach Steve Drummond said everyone was surprised with the results.

‘‘We thought we’ll just have a go and get some experience and then in 2020 we’ll go in earnest and we’ll really compete.

‘‘We weren’t expecting to get a gold medal in every division and every category that we entered,’’ Drummond said.

Drummond said this was the first time the club had entered members in such a contest.

‘‘It’s not a widely known martial art. Hapkido is primarily a selfdefence martial art so they don’t have competitions very often.’’

The individuals could be assessed on their form in a category called pattern, and all of Drummond’s athletes also entered the sparring category and fought their competitors.

Gibbs, Whitham and Ioane got a gold in each category and Ruffles got a silver in the sparring – while up against Ioane.

The two adult martial artists Sadler and Puata both also got golds in their sparring.

‘‘We got eight gold and one silver,’’ Drummond said.

‘‘We did not expect that.’’ Drummond said in September next year a New Zealand team would be heading to Korea for the world championships and there had been hapkido grand masters at the event who had come over from Korea to watch the Kiwi talent at the Oceania champs.

‘‘They’re putting together a team to go to Busan, South Korea,’’ Drummond said.

‘‘There will be over 3000 athletes there from all over the world.

‘‘And one of the grand masters asked me personally if I would take my six guys over with the New Zealand team.’’

So Drummond plans on it – and has put his name in the hat to be the New Zealand team coach so he can watch his martial artists succeed again too.

ANDY JACKSON/STUFF A group of Taranaki martial artists have gone from preparing for their first big national contest to getting set for a world championship next year. Pictured are Royden Whitham, 11, Nihmaren Ioane, 14, Manny Sadler, coach Steve Drummond and Maddison Gibbs, 16.